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Thriving Industries and Choral Music

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Building on Monday's blog post about dying industries and choral music, here is the Wall Street Journal chart that highlights the Top Ten Thriving industries.
 
It looks to me like the move to e-publishing and e-commerce is taking over – when will the music publishing industry move from the paper-postage model and into a PDF-Email-License model?
 
There is a reason for the hesitation of traditional publishers, of course:  they haven't figured out how to survive in the new age.
 
This is from a recent conversation I had with a music publisher:
 
We believe that such a model, if implemented, will result in the same thing that happened in the recording industry–a collapse of offline retail world, the deterioration of quality of the product and service surrounding the delivery of the product, and a troubling diminishment of availability of certain product.  
 
Again, I have no degree in business, but isn't it obvious that something new will fill the void?
 
 

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  1. Whatever the ramifications of the move to e-music in the choral music world, I suspect it’s going to happen. The issue I have not heard discussed is the actual device for reading or display. IPad, for example is considerable “over-kill.” One doesn’t need all the programs and aps that come with this device. I’m thinking price. This is a significant factor in implementing all of this. A simple flat screen dedicated to one purpose seems the way to go. Built to accept wireless download with possible touch features allowing for singer marks for breaths or other indications and page turning…thus, keeping it simple and as cheap as possible…this is the way to go!

  2. Bob,
     
    I didn’t take you out of context – we have a disagreement about what the PDF-Email-License model looks like.
     
    To me, this model is based on the iTunes/Amazon model – all music exists digitally and it is purchased digitally.  Then the conductor prints it out for choir or uses however he/she pleases.
     
    My understanding of your version is this:
    • To you, it begins with a paper copy of the music that the conductor acquires (somehow).
    • The composer contacts you, you grant permission and sell that person a license.
    • Composer duplicates copies according to license.
    I think yours is a positive step forward but that it doesn’t go where it needs to go.
     
    In my view of how the world should be, all the music exists online and is purchased online.  I do believe the price should be substantially reduced from what it is now – certainly not $2 per copy.  In fact, it shouldn’t even sell by the page – that is an artifact that we should eliminate.
     
    I understand that my model is disruptive of the way that business is currently done – but that is the change that I see coming – and that’s why I am highlighting the disruptive force that the internet is having on paper based businesses and celebrating the ascendance of e-commerce and e-publishing.
     

  3. Philip,
     
    I am the author/publisher whom you anonymously quote in today’s blog. The quote is accurate, but it is unfortunate that you did not include the few sentences in my paragraph which provide a different context for the lpassage. Here they are:
     
    …we do not believe that a successful (financial) business model can be sustained under the circumstances described. What we have seen described is essentially the iTunes/Amazon.com/iBook model for cheap download. We believe such a model, if implemented…
     
    Let’s be clear that there are two distinctly different business models. We like and use the one you proposed today. But what you quoted from me is all about the other model (i/Tunes).
     
    The PDF/E-Mail/License model which you mention is a far different one than the iTunes model. The first is a grant from the publisher (license) to use the PDF file in return for a fee. The analogy for this model might be when you “buy” software and agree to a license. You are actually buying a grant of use under agreed upon terms. This is a direct transaction between publisher and customer (no middleman). The Publisher controls the catalog in the “cloud.” A full description of ECS’s use of this very good and sustainable model exists in the same interview from which you extracted today’s quote.
     
    The iTunes model, however, is an actual sale for a digital file download through a third party (Apple). Apple controls the price and terms of the sale as well as the “catalog” in the “cloud,” and also the use of Apple’s DRM (digital rights management software).
     
    As I said in the interview: …licensing has been and will continue to be the important model for the near future. ECS is also committed to having all of its catalog available, even back catalog.
     
    Robert Schuneman
    President, ECS Publishing

  4. Typical – rather than lead the change, resist it.  I encountered exactly the same thing when as a very senior major in the Army, I proposed to younger officers that we needed to move from a paper-driven intel reporting and storage model to a paperless and disk-storage (this was back in 1994) model.  Curiously, the older of the two captains agreed with me; it was the younger who didn’t; and when asked why, he said, (paraphrasing here), “My last unit didn’t do it that way!”  It was a visceral response, and hid behind the comfort of “We’ve always done it that way.”  Is the publisher necessarily wrong in this instance?  No – there is always the risk of poor quality and poor service.  The phrase “a troubling diminishment of availability of a certain product” needs only this translation – there’ll be fewer music publishers.  But isn’t that ultimately what a capitalist model demands?  If you can meet the demands of the market and provide a worthwhile product, you survive and perhaps thrive; if not, you go out of business.  I would put it this way to the music publishing industry:  stand still, you become dinosaurs (and you know what happened there); move to the model book publishing is moving to, and you may survive.  With the improvement of compositional software, it would be entirely possible as time goes on that composers will self-publish, self-promote, and self-distribute, especially on-line, cutting out the industry entirely (and removing two middle men in the licensing racket).  If that trend goes to the biggest names in composition and they move in that direction, the death of the publishing industry on paper is assured.  Old Army saying:  “Lead; follow; or get the h..l out of the way!”
     
    Ron

  5. Hello Phil

    Right on! It is certain that a large-scale move to PDF-Email-License will take place and, particularly in the case of smaller – i.e. more readily flexible – publishers it is already happening. It is most certainly happening at the level of the composer/arranger and will percolate upwards. Yes, there will be a deterioration of the product. Look at (but don’t listen to!) the thousands of lowest common denominator music octavos that were published, and continue to be, when the music industry made full use of the printing press and its modern equivalents. The church music industry could not survive without it! But at the same time, a great deal of excellent music was and is made much more widely available.

    This will certainly happen all over again with the http://www.democratization of music. And yes, it will eventually lead to the collapse of the offline retail music world. Let’s hope it is gradual, as a lot of adjustments will certainly have to take place.

    Although I sell music in PDF format I still try as much as feasible to go through publishers and booksellers; the two are inextricably linked. I estimate that at least half of my customers prefer printed copies for their longevity (and that in itself says something!) and for ease in handling. That being said, I can see a shift to the PDF-Email-License model and suspect very strongly copy companies will reap a lot of the benefit; they will figure out ways to turn those PDF files into nice, heavy paper copies and books, as the music will still have to be printed. Unless, of course, every performer has a music iPad or some latter day equivalent. In any event, music ‘publishing’ will become decentralized.

    I cannot agree with the publisher’s statement regarding ‘a troubling diminishment of availability of certain product’. It is as easy to send one piece of music via PDF as 500, which is not true of hard copies. On the contrary, everything will be immediately available, and that is the big rub!

  6. Yes, it’s obvious that change will continue to be the norm in music publishing, exactly as it always has been with the climate and with nearly every other activity or system one can name. It is far less obvious, not to say a complete mystery, just what form this new “something” will take. I am far from persuaded that any of the several business models being proposed (frequently [not to say relentlessly] in this very blog) actually have viability in the real world.
     
    Meanwhile, the extended process of a changeover will, with absolute certainty, result in all of the problems listed by your anonymous publisher, above, and “it ain’t gonna be pretty.” It’s all very well to be a cheerleader for the brave new (digital) world, eagerly anticipating the benefits. It’s still wise, however, to be careful what you wish for–there be a heap of pain ‘twixt here and there.
     
    Dan Gawthrop
    Gawthrop (at) DunstanHouse.com

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